


Sofa Beds and Crossword Puzzles

by crystalkei



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-17
Updated: 2014-12-17
Packaged: 2018-03-01 22:52:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2790653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crystalkei/pseuds/crystalkei
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A prompt from tumblr:  Modern AU: Bellamy and Clarke have spent Christmas with their respective families, and now Clarke has gone to stay at the Blakes for a few days. They are staying on the sofa bed downstairs, and Clarke point blank refuses to have sex with Bellamy in case they get caught (he tries once or twice, she almost breaks). Eventually he breaks- follows her into the shower/bathroom, because it’s the only place they can get any privacy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sofa Beds and Crossword Puzzles

“And then I got sunburned, right here, look, it’s still a little pink,” Clarke said pulling the collar of her jacket and shirt back to reveal a slightly pink inch of skin near her shoulder. Bellamy looked over from his seat for a moment, then back at the road.

“Tell me some more about this tragic Christmas vacation in the Bahamas, Princess, tell me more of your tales of woe!” he replied with a dramatic flourish. Clarke righted her jacket and socked him in the arm.  
  
“Jerk,” she said as he pulled up to the house. “You asked how the trip was!”  
  
“I did, I just didn’t expect you to complain about it,” he said, putting the car in park. “But I’m glad you’re back.” Bellamy leaned over and kissed her. “Now that you’re here though, I hope you didn’t expect a five star resort king sized bed with Egyptian cotton. My mom’s house is not so luxurious.”

“I’ve slept in your apartment, I’m sure your mom’s house is a step up,” Clarke said as she unbuckled her seatbelt. 

Bellamy sucked in air, “Yeah, about that, we’re on the pullout sofa in the living room.”  
  
“Oh.” Clarke tried not to look disappointed.  
  
“I told you, no frills, but you wanted to come.” Bellamy gave her a look. “You begged for this thrilling adventure. I tried to talk you out of it.”

“I know, but I’ve never met your mom, I thought you were doing that ‘I’m afraid to introduce my girlfriend to my mom’ thing. I didn’t realize we’d be roughing it like this. Wait, did you know this?”

“If I’d known, I would have used it as a point to sway you from coming,” he said. “And, by the way, I have no problem with you meeting my mom, I have a problem with my mom meeting you.”  
  
“Oh please, I’m sure she’ll love me,” Clarke said easily and Bellamy laughed.  
  
“This is going to be a cluster fuck,” he said. “Let’s go in, my mom and O are asleep, so you’ll have to be mom-ready in the morning, she gets up at 6am and she expects everyone to get up with her.”  
  
“I’m jetlagged.”  
  
“We’re in the same time zone.” Clarke pouted and Bellamy kissed her forehead. “I told you, this was a horrible idea. Now you get to see why.”

Once they were inside, Clarke saw the pullout couch. She dropped her purse and her carryon while Bellamy wheeled in her suitcase. 

“I can already feel the springs in my back.”  
  
“Princess and the pea?” She rolled her eyes. “It’s got a memory foam topper, I ran out and bought it earlier today. Just for your highness. Bathroom’s over here.” He pointed down the hall.  
  
“It’s fine. I’m going to be fine. I’m here with you, Octavia and I are going to hate watch some trash TV, I’m going to wow your mom, what’s a few days on a pullout?” Clarke said putting her arms around Bellamy’s waist and looking up at him. He smirked before grabbing her and falling backwards onto the bed. It squeaked loudly and Clarke just shook her head, lifting herself to hover over him. “This is terrible.”  
  
“Nah, it’ll be fine.” He kissed her, his tongue making it’s way into her mouth, his hands reaching to pull her coat off. “You can just sleep on top of me, I’m comfy.”  
  
She shrugged out of her jacket and kissed his jaw line, while his hands stroked the bare skin of the small of her back under her shirt. His hands moved up to help her out of the top but she swatted at his hands. “Um, this works much better if we use teamwork,” he offered.  
  
“We’re not having sex on this couch one floor down from your mother who I haven’t yet met,” Clarke said, rolling off him and propping her face up on her arm next to him. The creaking and racket of the springs made her cringe. He looked confused.  
  
“We’re not?”  
  
“No!” she said a little too loud. She covered her mouth a moment, then whispered. “She’s going to hear us! I am so not doing that.”  
  
“I haven’t seen you in seven days,” he whined. “And I barely saw your sunburn, I should probably inspect that a little closer.” Bellamy pulled at her collar, but he had to roll on his side to do it and the springs struck again, the sound was horrible. His face scrunched up at the noise.  
  
“Now who’s complaining about the sofa bed?”  
  
“So if we were in a real bed, we could be having sex? Because I’m pretty sure I can get Octavia to trade her twin if we can-” Clarke shook her head before he could finish.  
  
“Wouldn’t matter. I’m not having sex in your mom’s house!” She looked scandalized. “Isn’t there some rule? It’s surely not polite.”  
  
“This is going to be worse than I thought. I have to deal with you meeting my mother, and I’m not getting laid? You do realize, she knows we’re sleeping on this torture device together, it’s not like she doesn’t know we have sex.”  
  
“Did you tell her we were having sex?” Clarke’s eyes were wide.  
  
“I didn’t have to tell her we were having sex, that’d be weird and she’s not 80, she is aware that I’m not a virgin. Jesus, she caught me having sex in my car when I was 17 and it’s not like she was surprised.” She bit her lip and looked thoughtful.

“I’m tired, the flight was long, I’m just going to get ready for bed,” she said, starting to work her way upright from the noisy bed. Bellamy tried not to laugh watching her, and he didn’t say anything when she got sort of stuck, he just pushed her back a little to help her. When she was finally standing, she looked back at him. “I swear I will never say another bad thing about your little apartment.” 

He nodded while he pressed his lips tightly together to restrain his laughter.  
  
\--  
  
It was dark. Clarke could see through the blinds that it was just starting to lighten, but all she could hear was pots clanging in the kitchen. She moved from under Bellamy’s arm to reach for her phone on the floor where it was plugged in. 6:05 am. Damn, he wasn’t kidding.  
  
“Clarke, how nice to meet you!” the dark haired woman was standing at the foot of the bed now, her hair in a classic bun and fully dressed. Clarke couldn’t see with the light from the kitchen behind the woman, but she was almost sure, Bellamy’s mom had makeup on. At 6:05 am. She realized she hadn’t responded at all. She was about to but Bellamy started from beside her, his voice thick with sleep.  
  
“Clarke, this is my mom, Aurora. Mom, Clarke,” his arm made a clumsy motion from each woman before landing back on Clarke’s stomach. “Tada. Introductions made. Please tell me there will be bacon.”  
  
“I’m making coffee and yes, there will be bacon.” Aurora seemed annoyed with him but she smiled at Clarke.  
  
“Hello,” Clarke said, again moving Bellamy’s arm and lifting herself up out of the god-awful bed to sit on the side of it. “I’m sorry I got in so late last night I couldn’t meet you then.”  
  
“Oh, I go to bed early, it’s fine,” she replied. “How was your Christmas with your parents? Bellamy said you were in the Bahamas?”  
  
“Sunny,” Clarke managed. She really had to pee but she wanted to make a good first impression. She looked down and realized her right boob was trying to escape her loose tank top. She tried to adjust discreetly by pulling her arm against the side of her chest but it was clear Aurora saw what was going on. “Excuse me, I’m just going to make myself presentable,” Clarke said quickly. Bellamy’s mom just stood there smiling. She didn’t go back to the kitchen. She just stood there so Clarke was forced to roll out of bed, open her suitcase, dig through it for clothes, and her makeup bag, all while in her panties and a tank top that was betraying her. Yeah, this was going great.  
  
  
…  
  
As Clarke was brushing her teeth, there was a knock at the bathroom door. “I brought you some towels,” Aurora said from the other side of the door. Clarke opened the door just a little, hiding behind it because she still hadn’t put any clothes. Aurora handed her the small stack of fluffy linens, at least as nice as the resort in the Bahamas, Clarke noticed. “You’re not a vegetarian, right?” Clarke shook her head, trying to keep the foamy toothpaste in her mouth and look as dignified as possible. “Great. By the way, when you’re in the shower, you just have to jiggle the handle a little or it won’t get hot.”  
  
Clarke tried to say “thanks” but the toothpaste wouldn’t let her so she just stood nodding and trying not to think about how ridiculous she must look to this woman.   
  
This was still going great. It was fine. It’d be fine. 

  
…  
  
“Did you figure out the shower?” Bellamy asked as she was coming out, he’d already righted the couch and folded all the linens from the bed. She smiled thinking how he’d never do that in his apartment.  
  
“Sort of,” she said, passing him. He bent down to kiss her and she was caught off guard by it. He was still in his boxers and shirtless, he pulled her closer to him, not minding the makeup bag and pile of clothes she was holding being smashed in between them.  
  
“I can help you figure it out,” he whispered, “Right now.” Bellamy pulled her waist closer to his, he was hard and she almost fell over trying to get out of his grasp. He chuckled at her and she glared at him after frantically checking around for his mother.  
  
“Oh my god, your mom is here,” Clarke hissed, keeping herself just out of his arms’ reach. He smirked at her.  
  
“She went upstairs to drag O out of bed. We’ve got a solid seven, eight minutes.” Bellamy’s hair was messy, his smile was lazy, and she had missed him, and she so very much wanted to jump him. Clarke almost did, but then she heard Octavia yelp.  
  
“Mom! I don’t care if there’s bacon, Clarke’s here, bother _her_ at breakfast with your crossword clues and let me sleep!”  
  
“We’re not having sex in your mom’s house,” she whispered again then shook her head as if that would seal her resolve.  
  
 “This is going to be a battle of the wills that I will win,” he challenged before took a step closer to her and leaned down to kiss her again. Deeper, harder, and leaving her breathless right as his mother hit the bottom step. Clarke pushed him and he just winked at her before turning to the bathroom.  
  
“You’re looking more awake now,” Aurora said coming through the living room.  
  
“I’ll be even better with some coffee, did I hear you say there was some?” Clarke asked. She could feel that her cheeks were pink from embarrassment. Bellamy was making this whole thing worse.  
  
“Of course, you’re in medical school right? I’m sure you can help me with this crossword puzzle.” Clarke tried to smile.  
  
“Um, I’m not really great at them, but yes, I am going to medical school. Well, almost finished.” She tossed her stuff into her suitcase and followed Aurora into the kitchen. She poured Clarke a cup of coffee and gestured for her to sit at the small table set for four.  
  
“Help yourself,” she said pushing the bacon plate a little closer to her. Clarke got herself a piece of bacon and some eggs and started to eat as the older woman sat down across from her with her newspaper. “Vertiginous, five letters, ends with a ‘Y?’”  
  
Clarke chewed her bacon thoroughly while she tried to think. “Um, dizzy?”  
  
“No, I think it’s silly,” she responded flatly. Clarke looked confused for a moment. “You’re not silly, the word, honey, the clue, I don’t think it’s dizzy, I think it’s silly.”  
  
“Oh,” Clarke said feeling dumb. “Right. So, do you do that every day?”  
  
“No, just on the weekend, I don’t have time during the week.” She went back to her paper and Clarke took her first blessed sip of coffee. There probably wasn’t going to be enough of the stuff to make this morning better.  
  
“So how was your Christmas? Did Santa come?” The minute she said it, Clarke cringed. She was talking to an adult, a woman probably the same age as her own mother, why she asked about Santa she had no idea. There weren’t any kids around and it’d been a solid 15 years since Clarke had even really thought about Santa.

“Clarke, have you seen my pants?” Bellamy called from the bathroom and this time Clarke just covered her face with her hands. 

“Excuse me,” she mumbled without looking at Aurora and heading for the living room. She retrieved a pair of jeans from the gym bag near her suitcase and threw them at the bathroom door.  
  
“Hey, why don’t you bring those pants in here?” He gave her a roguish look but Clarke just groaned.

“Very busy having a super awkward breakfast with your mom. Stop making it worse, please,” she whispered, not wanting to alert the woman in the kitchen.  
  
“What time is it? 6:45? You’ve done an amazing job holding out, we’ll go to the store later and get some half off Christmas chocolate to treat you. And then we’ll have some sex and you’ll feel better.”  
  
“Fuck you!” she responded. “You’re making this harder!”  
  
“Look,” he said with a wicked smile, “You’re all spun up you can’t even speak like a normal person, it’s all innuendo.”  
  
Clarke glared at him. “You aren’t going to win, I’m not going to have sex under your mom’s roof!”  
  
“I’d have sex with you in your parents house.”  
  
“I’m sure you would, but I wouldn’t.” His eyes lit up and Clarke immediately pointed a finger at him. “No, don’t, don’t you dare make that a new challenge.”  
  
“We haven’t had dinner there in a while, your mom’s going to invite me like she does every month or so and we’re so sneaking off and doing it in your childhood bedroom. That is happening.”  
  
“Why do men have that gross kink? Ew!” Clarke looked at him disgusted.  
  
“Clarke, I’ve got another clue that I need some help with,” Aurora said from the kitchen.  
  
“Go help my mom with her crossword and try not to think about that thing I do with my tongue that you like so much,” Bellamy waggled his eyebrows and Clarke narrowed her eyes at him. He wasn’t playing fair.

 

“Four letters, oft glazed dessert, any ideas?” Aurora asked from behind the newspaper as Clarke sat back down, Octavia following behind her.  
  
“Good morning, stranger,” she said, giving Clarke a half hug before she sat down across from her. “How was your trip?”

“She said it was sunny,” Aurora answered before Clarke could. “I guess that’s good, what a waste to be in the Bahamas with rain.” Clarke smiled a little uncomfortably. 

“She got sunburned, ruined her whole trip,” Bellamy added as he walked into the kitchen. He put his hand on her shoulder where he knew she was still a little pink. Clarke flinched.  
  
“I’ve got some aloe if you need it,” Aurora offered, still behind her newspaper. Clarke was about to thank her when she felt Bellamy move her collar over and kiss the spot he’d irritated. Clarke choked on her words. Octavia didn’t though.  
  
“Dude, it’s barely 7am. How’s about scaling that back? It’s disgusting.” Aurora’s newspaper came halfway down at the fold and she looked at them. Bellamy was already seated and making a childish face at Octavia, not even looking at his mother.  
  
“Be nice you two,” she scolded her children and then back to Clarke who was just thrilled that the newspaper had saved her one more embarrassing moment. “Any ideas on that dessert, four letters?”  
  
She thought for a second, biting her lip, “Flan?”  
  
“Hmm,” Aurora said, looking back at the puzzle. “Close, but I think it’s tart.” Clarke tried to smile.  
  
“Tart could work, too,” she replied.  
  
Clarke wasn’t offered another clue and Bellamy seemed to take the pressure off her by shoveling his breakfast at the rate of an Olympic wrestler so the rest of the meal passed uneventful.  
  
“I’m going to an estate sale with Grace, you three will have to entertain yourselves for a while.” Octavia closed her eyes and smiled dopily. “Don’t go back to sleep, Octavia, I need you to do the dishes.” She scoffed.

“Mom, why can’t Bell do the dishes?” 

“Because he’s going to mop.” Now Bellamy groaned. “You two are such lazy children.”  
  
“No, mom, we’re grown children. We clean our own houses, now we have to clean yours, too?” Clarke realized she had an in to make herself look better.  
  
“Is there anything you need me to do? Vacuum, windows, I can clean the bathroom?” she interjected with far too much enthusiasm. Bellamy and Octavia looked at her with matching faces of irritation.  
  
“Was the bathroom dirty?” Aurora asked abruptly and Clarke realized she’d made another misstep.  
  
“No, no, I just...I was just offering to help, I thought you could use the help, I didn’t think…” she tried but from the offended look on the older woman’s face she could tell her quick thinking had backfired.  
  
“Have a nice time with Grace, please do not bring back a hutch for my apartment that has no need for one,” Bellamy said trying to save her. Clarke was grateful.  
  
“I also do not need a hutch or a sideboard, Mom,” Octavia added. “My roommates have enough pointless furniture.”  
  
“Everyone needs a good sideboard,” Aurora said standing up from the table. “Be good.”  
  
“We will because we’re adults, Mom,” Octavia shouted as her mother grabbed her purse and walked out the door. She turned to Clarke, “So that went horribly. What else can you say that will make my mom hate you, Clarke?”

Bellamy scoffed. “That wasn’t nearly as bad as the time I brought Piper home. I think she likes you.”

“Was it just me or did she keep giving me crossword answers that were actually insults directed at me?” Clarke asked rubbing her temples. Bellamy laughed. 

“You wanted to meet her,” he said standing up and collecting the plates on the table. “She has us clean because she likes to keep us humble, Clarke, she certainly doesn’t need the cleaning done. She takes a behemoth amount of pride in her tidy home.”  
  
“I didn’t even think about it, I just thought after all the embarrassing moments this morning, I just thought she’d be impressed. I didn’t mean to insult her!”

Octavia looked at her sympathetically. “The good news is she’s still speaking to you. Well, I think. Once she comes home we’ll know for sure. And hey, she didn’t say anything about the fact that you guys aren’t engaged yet.” 

“C’mon O, you know that’s more dinner conversation than breakfast,” Bellamy said as he retrieved the mop from the cupboard. “We’re all too tired to be as uncomfortable as she’d really like us to be.”  
  
Clarke looked horrified. “That’s going to be a thing? We haven’t even been dating that long!”  
  
Octavia laughed. “She let you sleep on the couch together, this combined with your whole year of dating means you’re basically soul mates in her book so you might as well start searching our family tree to see which ancestors you’ll be naming your children after.”  
  
“I’m down for some stress relieving sex whenever you’re ready,” Bellamy said from the kitchen sink as he filled the bucket. Clarke frowned at him.  
  
“Let this loser mop,” Octavia said to Clarke on her way out of the kitchen. “We can squeeze in a whole episode of basically anything on E! before he finishes and then I’ll do the dishes.”

…  
  
Though the day was relaxing and filled with reality TV, dinner was just as bad as Bellamy said it would be.  
  
“You are getting old, don’t you think?” It sounded horrible no matter how Clarke sliced it. Bellamy was about to get smashed by his mother and there was no way it’d come out pretty. “Your father and I were much younger than you and Clarke, don’t you think you should get to it?” Bellamy’s jaw clenched. She put what she hoped would be a calming hand on his knee under the table but she wasn’t sure if he even noticed.  
  
“Mom, it’s really none of your business,” he said.  
  
“But you’ve been dating for a while, now you brought her home, don’t you think it’s time?” Clarke moved her peas around her plate not wanting to engage at all but it wasn’t meant to be. “Clarke, I know it must be very busy for you, in medical school, I know you may not want to plan something on this scale, but it doesn’t have to be a large event.”  
  
Clarke bit her lip trying to buy herself some time. “Mom,” Bellamy broke in. “Stop. If Clarke and I are going to get married, we’d want to discuss it together first, instead of with you.”  
  
A blessed reprieve, Octavia’s phone rang and everyone looked at her. Clarke and Bellamy hopefully, it was a ticket out of the conversation, but Aurora was irritated.  
  
“Excuse me,” Octavia said getting up from the table. “This is important.”  
  
“Please tell me that is Lincoln begging you to take him back,” Bellamy said shocking both Octavia and Clarke.  
  
“God, you really do want out of this conversation if that’s your first thought,” Octavia said before Bellamy gave her the finger as she walked backwards out of the kitchen into the living room.

“Bellamy!” his mother scolded but he made a face like he wasn’t even sorry. 

“So this has been great but I need to get a lot of liquor in me.” Aurora gave him a disapproving look. “Clarke, let’s go get some air, huh?”

...

When they were in the car heading to the store Clarke reached over and took his hand. “Thanks for not leaving me with your mom, that would have been really uncomfortable.”  
  
“Yeah, sorry. I should have warned you about that.”  
  
“You did, it’s okay.” She rubbed her thumb along the top of his hand. “I just didn’t know it was going to be that bad. Makes me sort of grateful my parents see you a lot. I don’t think they’ve ever come at me about you like that.”  
  
“That wasn’t about you,” he said, turning to look at her softly before looking back at the road. “That was all about me and the way my mother thinks I’m not doing well enough. She put all this work in, to mold me and then I’m supposed to fill in where she can’t with Octavia, and look, here we are, both of us failures to her. Not married, no kids for her to, god, I don’t even know how she’d be as a grandma, but all her friends are now and what does she have? A high school history teacher son, a daughter who can’t decide what the fuck she wants to do with her life, and then I bring this sparkling light into her house. Look at this woman,” Bellamy wasn’t looking at Clarke at all now, instead he looked like he’d forgotten she was even there, he was explaining it to himself it seemed. “Beautiful, smart, and on her way to being so successful, and of course she’s gonna grill me about tying you to me. Trapping you and making sure you can’t get away. Then she’s got something to tell her friends. Then she’s got something to really be proud of.”  
  
“You’re not a failure and Octavia’s not a failure,” she stated confidently. “You’re good, productive members of society. You were just nominated for teacher of the year and you’ve been doing that less than five years! That’s a huge accomplishment. God, I would gouge my eyeballs out if I had to deal with teenagers all day long.”

He pulled into the liquor store parking lot and looked at her.  
  
“That’s very nice of you to say but my mom-“  
  
“Your mom doesn’t know that because you didn’t even tell her,” Clarke interrupted. Bellamy shrugged. “I’m going to tell her when we get back.”  
  
“Yeah, I don’t know if you should do that.” He smiled slyly at her. “When you try to help lately, you make a mess of things.”  She frowned at him.

“I’m really making a mess of it but you don’t have to rub it in, geez, asshole.”   
  
Bellamy leaned over and kissed her, he laughed when she tried to move closer to him but couldn’t because of her seatbelt. Clarke undid the belt without breaking contact, and he messed with her, nipping at her bottom lip. She couldn’t help but moan.

“This seems like the perfect place to have sex, like right now,” she said breathily when she pulled away from him.  
  
“Not likely, Princess,” Bellamy said. He pushed some hair behind her ear. “I already told you my mom caught me in a car once and I’ve also been given a ticket for a different occasion so since adulthood I ditched that sex in a car thing. It’s not good for my health.” She pouted. “But we could go back and have sex.”  
  
“I don’t think you mean drive two hours to your apartment or mine so that’s a no go, sir,” she replied. Now it was his turn to pout. Clarke laughed at him as her phone rang. “Go get your bourbon and grab me some of those mini donuts. It’s my mom so,” she said pointing to the phone.  
  
“The chocolate ones?” he asked as he got out of the car. She nodded as she answered the phone.

“Everything working out okay? You being polite?” her mom asked. 

“Yeah, it’s fine.” She didn’t want to tell her the truth. It’d take too long and she wasn’t really in the mood for her mom to try and help. Better to keep the call short. She’d just gotten back from a week of nonstop parent time, she really didn’t have anything worth talking about. But it was Saturday night and her mom always called her Saturday night.  
  
Clarke let her talk though, which turned out to be a bad idea because just as Bellamy was getting back into the car her mother said, “And you two should come for dinner on Wednesday. Your father is hosting a lecture in the house later that night and you know he likes to show you off.”  
  
Bellamy took the phone from her with a wicked smile. “Abby, we’d love to come!” Clarke tried to get the phone back from him but he dodged her arm. “The lecture sounds great, nah, we’ll just stand in the back and that way we can slip out if Clarke starts snoring.”  
  
“Don’t you dare!” Clarke whispered.  
  
“Yep, okay, see you then.” Bellamy hung up and tossed her the phone. “We are so fucking in your room that night.”  
  
“Jesus, does your mother know how hyper focused you can get? That’s got to be something to be proud of.”  
  
“I wouldn’t tell my mom about this instance, or you could. I mean, if you told her, then maybe you’d see it’s not that big of a deal to have sex in her house.” He winked at her and started the car.  
  
When they got back to the house, Aurora was doing the dishes in the kitchen. Clarke left Bellamy on the couch with his bourbon and Ninja Warrior. She walked to the sink, grabbing a dishtowel from the drawer, and started to dry the dishes and put them away. It seemed not talking and helping was the best impression she’d made all day. She and Aurora worked side by side for a few minutes before the work was all done. Aurora thanked her and then excused herself for bed.

“Didn’t ruin that,” Clarke said to Bellamy as she sat with her legs under her and leaned into his side. 

“Because you two didn’t speak.” She glared at him. 

“We spoke, she said ‘goodnight,’ I said ‘goodnight,’ words were had,” she said jutting out her chin in pride.

“If you say so,” Bellamy said, his arm around her, fingers moving along her arm. His hand now moved up to twirl a lock of her hair absently. She felt him look down at her and turned to kiss him. “You know,” he said. “I bet with the couch in it’s proper position, it makes barely any noise.” 

Clarke rolled her eyes, but pulled herself up to rest on her knees, and grasped his face in her hands. “I’m sure it doesn’t, but I’m still not fucking you on it.” He smiled, wide and happy, no smirk or challenge in it before he kissed her again, his tongue tasting of the bourbon he’d had. Bellamy pulled her closer to him, he guided her leg over his lap so she was straddling him, then he moved his hands under her sweater, just back and forth along her sides, the feather light touch making her shiver. As they kissed, his fingers would dance their way up to the bottom of her bra, moving around the seam, back to front, to back, and then painstakingly down her torso again. He wasn’t going in for the kill, he was teasing her, and god, Clarke loved it.

He kissed along her jaw, then down her neck, as she held his head, her hands in his hair, she sighed content. 

“Marrying you would not be trapping me in some horrible life,” she said quietly, the mixture of sensations and intimacy overwhelming her better sense of judgment.  
  
“Proclamations of epic proportions aren’t allowed during sex,” he said in between the nipping and licking his way across the small space available to him not covered in sweater. “We established that rule approximately 97 years ago.”  
  
“We aren’t having sex.” She tugged on his hair and pulled him to look at her. He reached for the bottom of her sweater now and she let him pull it over her head.  
  
“Pretty sure we are,” he replied triumphantly.  
  
“No, you’re just helping me get ready for bed,” she said as she grabbed his chin with one hand. “I don’t even know where Octavia is, your mom is in bed, immediately above where we are. We’re not having sex.”  
  
“O went out, she texted me, telling me not to panic if she came in late,” he explained, his eyes twinkling, still firm in his mission. He used a finger to run along the top of the cups of her bra.  
  
“You would wake up like a panicked Chihuahua and reach for a baseball bat,” she said and he scrunched up his face.  
  
“Like a big guard dog, like a boxer or pit bull or something!” Clarke swatted his hand away and tried to stand up but he held her waist. “Come on, really, we aren’t?”  
  
“Nope,” she said wiggling out of his grasp to put her feet on the floor. She leaned over though and pressed her lips to his, one more quick peck. “I’m going to get ready for bed, we can watch SNL, hmm?”  
  
He accepted his defeat well and stood up to make the bed up, he gave her a smack on her ass when she passed him on her way to the bathroom and she shook her head but smiled.  
  
The TV blared with jokes when Octavia came in a little while later. Clarke was resting her head on Bellamy’s chest as he was propped up against the back of the couch, looking at something on his phone. “Hey, Octavia, O, O, O,” Clarke said excited like a child. “Come sit down and I’ll tell you about your mom not hating me!” Bellamy shook his head and tried not to laugh.

“They didn’t actually speak, she can hardly say that.” 

Octavia plopped down into the chair adjacent to the sofa. “You didn’t say anything? So the goal is to stay quiet?”  
  
“No! I said goodnight, she said goodnight,” she sighed. “I helped her put away the dishes. I just did the thing and that seemed to work really well.”

Octavia started to laugh. “You are a goddamned mess, Clarke.” 

“Go away,” Clarke said, taking one of the throw pillows from the floor and tossing at Octavia. “Where’d you go anyways? Lincoln really did want to get back together?”

“Hey, hey, I don’t want to hear about-” Bellamy started but he got a face full of the throw pillow. Octavia and Clarke both snickered. 

“Yeah, it was Lincoln, and yes, he happened to drive down here to give me a little Christmas gift.”  
  
“An orgasm?” Clarke teased and Bellamy groaned.  
  
“No, I don’t want to be in on this conversation. Take your girl talk shit upstairs.”  
  
“You don’t hate Lincoln,” Clarke told Bellamy, sitting up to poke a finger on his chest. “Just last month you were lamenting the fact that you didn’t have anyone to watch the MMA with! I remember specifically you mentioned Lincoln because I knew I had to text Octavia about this momentous occasion.”

Bellamy tilted his head and grimaced. “I may have said that.” 

Both Octavia and Clarke through up their hands in celebration.  
  
“Only took you five years, big brother. Thanks for coming around.”  
  
“I don’t want to hear about it though,” Bellamy replied. “Not just your sex life, I don’t want to hear about the constant breakups. Just get your shit together. I dunno, get married or something.”  
  
Now the two women just stared at him. The realization seemed to dawn on his face and he put his head in his hands.  
  
“Am I my mother? Shit, I’ve become my mother.” Clarke patted his shoulder condescendingly.

“Gee, you two, you’ve been dating forever, you’re getting so old, god, do you even have eggs anymore, Clarke? Have they all shriveled up?” Octavia said doing a very good impression of her mother.

“I don’t. I’m useless to the world now. Having babies was a train that I missed, that’s actually why we’re not engaged, Aurora, without my uterus in full function, your son doesn’t really want me. He only uses me for sex.” Clarke was getting into it now. “And besides, what would a lowly girl like me want with a dashing stud like this? I’m just wasting his money at this point.” Bellamy was laughing in earnest and Clarke was giggling right along with him. 

“Are you kids having a good time?” Aurora’s voice chimed in flatly over the rambunctious laughter and all three of them seemed to gulp. They turned to the stairs and there was Aurora wearing her bathrobe and a stern face.  
  
Octavia bolted first, “night!” she said rushing up the stairs right behind her mother. Bellamy cleared his throat.  
  
“Sorry, mom, we’ll keep it down,” Bellamy said as Clarke slunk back down on the pullout, putting her head on his chest and looking forward at the TV.  
  
“Is she gone?” she whispered after a few minutes, daring to glance back at the stairs to see them empty. “She probably heard everything I said.”  
  
“Probably,” Bellamy agreed as he reached for the remote.  
  
“She hates me.” Clarke felt defeated.  
  
“Probably,” he said again before he turned off the TV causing the room to go dark.  
  
  
….  
  
About once a week, Clarke would fall off the bed. It was a strange quirk her parents told her she’d had since she was out of a crib. She didn’t sleep in one spot well anyways, Bellamy knew this and his penchant for sleeping with one arm over her was his attempt at stopping the fall from happening. It never did, though, but he thought maybe he was cutting down on the frequency of it. Clarke didn’t want to tell him that it was really just once a week, no matter a stilling arm she wiggled out of, she just let him think he was helping.

So when she rolled off the pullout, no one was surprised, well except Bellamy’s mother who happened to be coming in from grabbing the newspaper. 

“I’m okay!” Clarke said as she quickly righted herself, rubbing her elbow where it had hit the hard metal of the bed on the way down. Bellamy just snorted at her and rolled over, but Aurora’s three steps from the front door to the couch were quick.  
  
“Are you sure? Is anything broken?” she asked, concern clear in her voice, the voice of a mother worried for a child.

“I’m fine, it’s fine. Thank you,” Clarke replied, reaching for her pajama pants and sweatshirt from the floor. She threw them on as Aurora backed off but still watched her worried. “I promise, no concussion or anything. I’m okay.”  
  
“She does it all the time, Mom,” Bellamy added, eyes still closed, taking a pillow to cuddle into. “I’ve never once had to take her to the emergency room.”  
  
“Have you thought about a sleep study? My friend had a sleep study and they found out she had some kind of apnea or something, it was halting her breathing in the middle of the night!” Aurora looked horrified as she explained about her friend.  
  
“I don’t have sleep apnea,” Clarke said with a smile. “Is there coffee yet or am I up too early?”  
  
“I was just about to make some. I’ll give the kids another 15 minutes of rest. It’s not quite 6 yet,” she explained walking into the kitchen. Clarke followed behind her.  
  
“Can I help?”  
  
“No, no, I put a quiche in the oven already, I’m just putting the coffee on. Do you like quiche?” Clarke nodded as she sat down at the table.  
  
“I downloaded a crossword clue helper app last night, maybe that could help with the puzzle?”  
  
“That seems like cheating,” Aurora said, a disapproving look coloring her face. Clarke sighed heavily.  
  
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” She pulled her foot up onto the chair so she could rest her chin on her knee. “I’m not a cheater or anything. I don’t want you to think-”

“I was really only talking about the crossword puzzle, Clarke,” Aurora said, cutting off Clarke’s train of thought that was sure to come out terribly. 

She put her foot down and rubbed her temples. “I keep saying the wrong thing, I’m not usually this much of a mess.”  
  
Aurora looked at her a moment before sitting down next to her.  
  
“Clarke, why is it so important that I like you?”

“People like me. I’m likable. I’m not usually like this, clumsy and embarrassing,” Clarke didn’t want to look her in the eye, but she forced herself to. 

“You seem like the kind of person that doesn’t care if people don’t like her. You are driven and focused, at least I think so from what Bellamy has told me. So why does it bother you so much that I might not like you?”  
  
Clarke considered her answer carefully. Mostly because she wasn’t sure it was worth saying, especially if she was going to somehow ruin it.  
  
“I want you to like me because I want to be part of this family.” She shrugged. “I want you to like me so I belong.”  
  
“You have a family that you belong to,” Aurora countered but she wasn’t arguing. She was just stating a fact.  
  
“Well, yes, but Bellamy is my family, too. We’ve been together a while, we support each other. We practically live together, I don’t even like his little apartment but it’s where I am most of the time. And I wanted to meet you and prove that I was worthy. I wanted you to approve. That’s all any girlfriend wants when she’s meeting the parents, right?” She tried to smile. “But I’ve not done so well with that.”   
  
“I think you’re fine.” Aurora reached for her hand on the table and patted it. “We’ll have plenty of years for you to recover from some embarrassing first impressions.”   
  
Clarke decided not to push for anything else. She was just going to bask in the relief that Aurora didn’t hate her and that she expected her to be around a while. That was enough. She smiled at her before the older woman got up to retrieve the quiche from the beeping oven. 

“Will you go wake up that sleeping man?” she threw over her shoulder. Clarke nodded and stood slowly. “I’ll get Octavia up, heaven’s knows she’s a beast in the morning. Always has been. Even as a baby.”  
  
“Bellamy,” Clarke said, pushing on his shoulder. “Your mom has requested I wake you.”  
  
“You guys pals now?” he asked, rolling over and wrapping his arms around her middle, dragging her down on top of him. She let out a small ‘oof’ as he pulled her to him.  
  
“Yeah, I think so, at least there’s a tentative truce with the understanding that I don’t always put my foot in my mouth,” Clarke said. She could hear Aurora upstairs knocking on Octavia’s door.  
  
“And I didn’t even have to marry you,” Bellamy said, his eyes fluttering back to sleep. She kneed his side. He grunted but then smiled up at her.  
  
“I think we should move into together, but not into your shitty apartment, okay?”  
  
“You just didn’t get a ring, so you’re using this as a consolation prize, if you’re gonna ask me, just ask me, Griffin,” he teased.  
  
“That’s a whole conversation for another day, jerk face, your lease is up next month so we’re going apartment shopping.”  
  
“Fine, as long as you pack the boxes,” he said.  
  
“You’re just going to lounge about all day, Bellamy?” Aurora said as she came down the stairs.  
  
“No, Mom, not while I’m here at your house,” he replied. Clarke stood up and dragged his arm so he sat up as well. “Thank god there’s still a week of Christmas break,” he whispered to Clarke under the guise of kissing the side of head. “Next week we are lounging all day.” She smiled at him before going back to the table.  
  
After they’d had breakfast, Aurora laid out the plans for the day, “I’m going to church,” the Blake siblings groaned simultaneously. “I’m not making you go, stop whining,” she said firmly. “When I get back I’ll make a big lunch and then you can go back to the city,” she paused. “I’ll stay here, so sad that my children have left me again.”  
  
“Mom!” Both Octavia and Bellamy said with equal amounts of irritation. But Aurora smiled, Clarke knew that smile, it was Bellamy’s wicked one.  
  
“Just reminding you two, well three.” She looked at Clarke and Clarke tried to play it cool about being included. “You don’t live that far from me so maybe if I pour the guilt on you’ll come visit me more often. Maybe even holidays that don’t involve presents.”  
  
“Yeah, that’s probably not going to happen, Mom,” Bellamy said. “But Clarke and I are going apartment hunting and look at her, she’s gonna want a guest bedroom so you come see us, okay?”  
  
Now Clarke saw Aurora trying to play it cool. She clutched her chest and cleared her throat. “That sounds lovely,” she managed to eek out calmly. Bellamy rolled his eyes.  
  
“Yeah, yeah, I know, go to church, will ya?”

As soon as the door shut, Octavia jumped up. “I am going back to bed and I swear I will scream if either of you wakes me up.” 

She was up the stairs and her door shut before Clarke could clear her plate. “Well I’m going to take a shower and then pack up my bag,” she said putting her dishes in the sink. “Then I’ll do these dishes because I can figure out a way to drop it to your mom that _I_ did them not one of you two.”  
  
Bellamy put his arms around her and put his dish in the sink before spinning her to face him. “You know, I should probably check the shower for you, if you don’t get it just right it’s only lukewarm.”  
  
“I know, that was my shower yesterday,” she said slowly, she moved her arms around his neck. “I guess since Octavia is upstairs…and your mom is gone…” she paused again and raised her eyebrows.  
  
“Yeah, let’s go take a shower,” he said before he pushed her against the counter and kissed her. Clarke pulled his shirt up over his head, scratching over his stomach muscles making him hiss. She threw the shirt as best she could towards the couch and he did the same with her sweatshirt, leaving the loose tank top that had betrayed her yesterday.  
  
“I think I like this top better than you naked, really,” he said as he started walking backwards towards the bathroom door, he pulled her along with him, kissing her jaw and running his hands along her torso.  
  
“You know what really got me hot earlier?” Clarke said as he guided her through the bathroom door and shut it behind them.  
  
“Tell me,” he said pushing his hands into her pajama pants to grab her butt before lifting her onto the counter. She shimmied out of the pants before he put her down, leaving just her panties on. She moaned as he sucked on her pulse point.  
  
“Second bedroom, god, that was so hot, we have to get a place with a second bedroom.” He had to step away from her for a moment the way he was laughing. “You going to just leave me here, dumbass,” she baited him. He came back towards her, laughing under control but still smiling. He pulled one of the tank stop straps down and licked and kissed across her shoulder, palming her breast through the top. She bit down to quiet the noise that wanted to escape her. Clarke pulled him closer and used her feet at his waist to push his own pajama pants down.

“You’re not going to make me start watching HGTV, are you?” he joked before kissing her, his tongue searching hers out. She felt him rubbing the crotch of her panties and sighed before he moved her panties to the side with his fingers. He circled her clit and then inserted a digit. Clarke moaned into his mouth. She pulled away and leaned her head back against the mirror. 

“Jesus, every Saturday, it’s going to be all interior design and we’ll do shit like go to Home Depot and Ikea,” she was going to say more but he had worked her right to the edge of oblivion with his fingers and she couldn’t remember what else she was going to say.  
  
“I’m not remodeling anything,” Bellamy said, using his other hand to pull her ass closer to the edge of the counter, he removed his finger and guided himself in. He thrust up and they both groaned. Her legs wrapped around his waist, opening herself wider and using her legs to pull him closer.  
  
“Of course not,” she managed to say before crying out as he hit just the right spot. “We’re renting not buying,” she finished before feeling her muscles tighten around him and seeing stars. He pumped into her a few more times before leaning against her shoulder, spent.  
  
He chuckled before adding, “We could buy.” She laughed and pushed him off of her.  
  
“Turn the shower on like I like it, guy who’s now super interested in real estate” she demanded.  
  
“Whatever you want, Princess,” he said with a wink.  



End file.
